B 2223 (Adam Gray, D-Merced) lays
the foundation to provide the long-term investment commitment
needed by the state to encourage and incentivize dairy methane
reduction projects, including digesters, solids separation, and
conversion to scrape manure management systems. The California
Air Resources Board (ARB) has embarked on an aggressive strategy
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on dairy farms that is
contained in their proposed Short-lived Climate Pollutants Plan.
ARB is targeting 75 percent voluntary reductions in methane
produced by manure management and an additional 25 percent
reduction of enteric methane emissions by 2030. AB 2223
appropriates $100 million per year from the Greenhouse Gas
Reduction Fund to the Department of Food and Agriculture to
provide incentives for the implementation of dairy digesters and
other dairy methane reduction projects and management practices.
The Assembly Natural Resources Committee approved AB 2223 on an
8 – 1 vote. Farm Bureau supports.

S

B 1350 (Lois Wolk, D-Davis)
appropriates $20 million from the state’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
Reduction Fund to the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA) to establish and oversee a Healthy Soils
Program. This program will provide a wide variety of incentives
to the agricultural community who are willing to make voluntary
operational changes that reduce GHG emissions and increase
carbon storage in soils and woody biomass. SB 1350 will allow
the expanded Scientific Advisory Panel on Environmental Farming
to work with CDFA and the California Air Resources Board to
recognize these agricultural sector GHG reductions as helping
meet the statewide GHG goals. The Senate Environmental Quality
Committee approved SB 1350 on a 6 - 0 vote. Farm Bureau
supports.

S

B 1383 (Ricardo Lara, D-Bell
Gardens) requires a 50% reduction in anthropogenic black carbon,
40% reduction of methane and a 40% reduction in fluorinated
gases below 2013 levels by 2030. Despite already having an
extensive mandatory state climate change program, SB 1383 will
create an inconsistent, new climate policy, increase costs of
doing business in California and create additional regulatory
burdens by directing the California Air Resources Board (CARB)
to approve and implement a strategy to reduce short-lived
climate pollutants (SLCPs) in the state. This is an expansion of
California’s climate policy and jurisdiction of CARB.

SB 1383 poses a direct threat to the future of the dairy
industry in California by allowing CARB to directly regulate
dairy methane emissions as a SLCP. Dairies in California have
two distinct sources of methane emissions: enteric emissions
from cows (digestion) and manure management. While California
dairies are extremely efficient they would be unable to compete
with dairies in other states and countries who have no methane
regulations. More research and demonstration projects are needed
to identify, quantify, validate and strengthen potential
strategies to reduce SLCPs from the California dairy industry.

2

While there is no funding in SB 1383, the California
Department of Food and Agriculture estimates that at least $100
million per year for five years will be needed to support the
development of necessary manure management infrastructure in the
form of grants or loans or other incentive payments. The Senate
Environmental Quality Committee approved SB 1383 on a 4 – 2
vote. Farm Bureau opposes.

A

B 2700 (Rudy Salas, Jr.,
D-Bakersfield) passed out of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce
Committee on consent on April 6. AB 2700 requires the CPUC to
update the criteria it uses to prioritize renewable energy
projects by including 1) a job creation factor for existing
renewable energy projects and 2) consideration of the value of
maintaining existing baseload resources in order to achieve the
goal of a balanced portfolio of eligible renewable projects. The
legislation represents a limited but positive change toward
aligning the criteria of judging renewable projects that are to
be used in a way that better recognizes the beneficial
attributes of biomass facilities. In contrast to solar and wind,
which produce electricity intermittently, biomass generation can
be strategically scheduled for use on the grid. CFBF is in
support. AB 2700 will be heard in the Assembly Natural Resources
Committee next on April 18.

S

B 1043 (Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica)
passed out of the Senate Energy Utilities and Communications
Committee on a 7-0 vote on April 5. SB 1043 directs the
California Air Resources Board (ARB) to consider and adopt
policies to significantly increase the sustainable production
and use of "renewable gas." It sets up the policy direction to
ARB by redefining biogas and biomethane, including prescriptive
language about what types of forest waste are to be included in
the products. CFBF joined several other agricultural
organizations in opposing the bill. SB 1043 is a revised effort
to mandate the use of renewable gas, following on the author’s
SB 687 introduced last year, which would have established a
renewable gas standard. That bill failed last year to move out
of the Senate Appropriations Committee. CFBF’s opposition is
based on projected costs that would result from ARB’s likely
implementation approach to the directives in the bill. Instead
CFBF has supported incentive approaches to the use of such
products. The bill will be heard next in the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee.

A

B 1960 (Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale)
would provide a narrowly tailored exemption which would exempt
farmers and ranchers from the BIT program so long as the pickup
and/or pickup and trailer combination is used solely in
agriculture, used not-for-hire, and the total gross combined
weight rating of the pickup and trailer does not exceed 26,000
pounds and the pickup has a GVWR of less than 16,000 pounds.
Vehicle and vehicle combinations subject to BIT include
commonly-used pickup trucks and pickup and trailer combinations
that for the most farmers and ranchers also serve as their
personal vehicles. If not used in farming, ranching or another
commercial enterprise, these vehicles and vehicle combinations
would otherwise be exempt from the BIT program. AB 1960 is
sponsored by the Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), Farm Bureau is
working with CCA for passage of this legislation.

T

he Senate Labor & Industrial
Relation Committee passed SB 1167 (Leyva, D-Chino) on April 6.
The bill directs Cal/OSHA to propose a regulation on heat
illness in indoor work environments to the Cal/OSHA Standards
Board. It requires that the proposed standard should meet or
exceed the protections included in the existing Heat Illness
Prevention standard which applies to outdoor employers, like
agriculture, construction and landscaping. The bill’s proponents
contend workers in warehouses and other indoor work sites face
hazards similar to outdoor workers and should be protected by a
specific standard. Opponents of AB 1167, including Farm Bureau
and a number of other employer organizations, believe the
existing Illness and Injury Prevention Program (IIPP)
requirement offers sufficient protection because it requires
employers to evaluate workplaces where heat hazards might exist
and to protect workers accordingly. The committee passed SB 1167
on a party-line 4-1 vote and referred it to Senate
Appropriations.

3

A

lso on April 6, the Assembly Labor
& Employment Committee passed AB 2757 (amended March 30)
(Gonzalez, D-San Diego). AB 2757 would require agricultural
employers to pay overtime premium pay (at a rate of 1.5 times an
employee’s regular rate of pay) to their employees after 8 hours
in any work day, and 40 hours in any work week; premium pay at
the rate of two times the employee’s regular rate of pay for any
work after 12 hours in a day; and will repeal the agricultural
exemption from the "one days’ rest in seven" requirement in the
Labor Code, requiring agricultural employers to provide
employees at least one day off each work week. Farm Bureau and a
broad coalition of employer groups opposed the bill. Proponents
characterized AB 2757 as "clean-up" legislation righting decades
of unfair exclusion of farm workers from the right to 8 hour
work days and 40 hour work weeks. Opponents testified that the
legislation will reduce farm workers’ income as affected
employers elect to have workers work 8 hours per day or 40 hours
per week and avoid overtime premium pay, rather than the current
practice of paying workers at their regular rate of pay for as
many as 10 hours a day for as many as 6 days a week during busy
periods when enough work is available to work those hours. AB
2757 passed the committee by a 5-2 party-line vote and was
referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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